Managing Globalization for Sustainability in the 21st Century

This essay provides an overview of the Ninth International Conference of the Greening of Industry Network held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 21–25 January 2001. For the first time in its ten‐year history, the Greening of Industry Network (GIN) gathered outside Western Europe and North America, with the theme Sustainability at the Millennium: Globalization, Competitiveness and the Public Trust. To highlight this important event, this special issue of Business Strategy and the Environment will place special emphasis on the Asian region, particularly on the issues confronting the economically less advanced countries. The overarching theme of the conference as well as many of the papers and discussion at the conference was globalization and sustainable development, and the relationship between these two issues. There was a rich if not a divergent perspective on what the relationship implies for the different Asian economies as well as for economically less advanced countries in general. After examining the relationship between sustainable development and globalization in the Asian context, this essay will discuss two themes with important implications for sustainable commerce: stakeholders and civil society and industrial competitiveness and transformation. The essay will conclude with some thoughts on the path that globalization has taken since the terrorist attack in the US on 11 September 2001 and on the 10 year anniversary of the Greening of Industry Network. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment